Legends of Tomorrow Will Feature A Major Arrow Villain

Crossovers: they're not just for heroes anymore. We’ve seen plenty of the good guys sharing screen time on The CW’s two comics series, The Flash and Arrow. Now it looks like at least one Arrow bad guy will get the chance to do the same. Neal McDonough has revealed that Damien Darhk will be visiting Legends of Tomorrow, as well as The Flash this season.

In an interview with Comicbook.com, McDonough let the info slip while discussing how his character changes over time.

You go back to the League -- I did an episode of Legends last week -- and I look exactly the same in 1975 but you see he's not as confident and doesn't have such an agenda forty years ago as he does now...So it's fun to play the different times, you know? Going back in time with Legends, and The Flash, with The Flash, I'm just this crazy, fun, enjoy everything while I kill everybody type of character. It's just nuts.

While long-running TV shows and the current focus on serialized drama allows many characters to change and evolve over time - Oliver Queen himself is a great example of that - it looks like Damien Darhk may have the rare opportunity to do that over the course of a single TV season. Between flashbacks, time travel and alternate timelines, it looks like we will see many different facets of this character over the next several months.

How exactly Dahrk will play a role in the other series is far from clear. We know that Vandal Savage is the villain whose existence leads to the Legends team getting together. So while Darhk may be a major bad guy on Arrow, he may only be a minor annoyance on the other series. Having said that, we know that Darhk’s access to the Lazarus Pit makes him reasonably immortal, an attribute which is part of Vandal Savage’s comics continuity as well. It’s not too big of a stretch to assume that these two may have crossed paths at some point in their history. It’s very possible that this fact is what will connect Arrow to the upcoming spinoff. Isn’t blatant speculation fun?

The reference to Flash is even stranger. Given that series' focus on alternative timelines, the Darhk we see there might not even really be the same one from the other shows. It could likely be either an alternate timeline or possibly a potential future where Darhk has already won and he’s gone mad with power. Actually, that sounds like fun.

McDonough is nearly always entertaining to watch, and so far his role on Arrow does not look like it will disappoint. Knowing that we’ll be seeing even more of him on our televisions this season is welcome news. How do you think Damien Darhk will be making his presence known on Flash and Legends?